The subject matter herein relates generally to electrical interconnect devices for use between opposed arrays of contacts.
Interconnect devices are used to provide electrical connection between two or more opposing arrays of contacts for establishing at least one electrical circuit, where the respective arrays may be provided on a silicon package, an electronic device, a printed circuit board, a Pin Grid Array (PGA), a Land Grid Array (LGA), a Ball Grid Array (BGA), and the like. In one interconnect technique, the electrical connection is provided by an interconnect device that is physically interposed between corresponding electrical contacts of the opposing arrays of contacts.
At least some known interconnect devices use an array of conductive elastomeric columns supported on a substrate. The elastomeric columns may be compressed to establish reliable contact between the opposing contacts and provide the electrical connection between the opposing contacts. In other known interconnect devices, the elastomeric columns are non-conductive and the electrical connection is provided via a separate contact or trace. The interconnect devices are capable of accommodating size constraints, such as related to the reduced physical size of many electrical devices.
However, the electrical connection may be unreliable due to height variations between electrical contacts of the opposing arrays, variations in thickness of a substrate supporting either of the opposing arrays or the conductive elements of the interconnect device, warping of a substrate of either of the opposing arrays, and the like. For example, during soldering of the interconnect device to the electronic device or package, the package may warp (sometimes known as “potato chipping” where the edges of the package are turned upward). In some cases, the warping causes unreliable connections in such locations in the form of partial connections or even no connections at all. To accommodate for such warping or bowing of the package, some packages include different size solder balls on the same package to ensure adequate amounts of solder material are present for soldering. Problems may arise and it may be difficult to connect with electrical devices or packages that have different solder ball sizes because of the height variation in the mating interfaces of the solder balls.
A need remains for an electrical interconnect device that is capable of reliably connecting to an electronic device or package having different size solderballs.